Is the European Court selling Ahmad out, and the kettled demonstrators before him, for the sake of making peace with a British government determined to get the court off its back? The Strasbourg court’s judgment in Ahmad and others,[1] ruling that the punitive regime in which four of them are likely to spend many years
Over 100 asylum seekers are facing eviction in Glasgow, after Serco was contracted to manage their accommodation. In January 2011, immigration minister Damien Green apologised for the ‘inappropriateness’ of government proposals to evict hundreds of asylum seekers from Glasgow, turfing them onto the streets if they refused to accept accommodation outside the city.[1] Fast forward
What does the Coalition’s new integration policy signify? According to Eric Pickles the Communities and Local Government secretary, 21 February, marked the death of multiculturalism in England. We are now entering an era of ‘integration’. The coalition policy statement, ‘Creating the conditions for integration’, was launched after being trailed by stories placed by think-tanks with
An examination of the contradictions in electoral racism in the UK. Across the Channel, Nicholas Sarkozy has been shamelessly courting supporters of the extreme-right leader Marine Le Pen ‘by proposing a referendum on illegal immigrants, threatening to pull out of the Schengen agreement, and calling for the labelling of halal meat’.[1] Of course, these are
Human rights in Europe are at grave risk from the UK government, argues a leading human rights campaigner. In the wake of the furore over the European human rights court’s ruling that Abu Qatada could not be deported, a draft document leaked to the Guardian reveals that the UK government is determined to reduce the
Asylum seekers were the guinea pigs for all kinds of brutal and unacceptable policies that are now beginning to be applied more widely. Private security firms are in the news – a national contract worth £3.5 billion is being rolled out to privatise police functions. Eight public prisons are being market tested with future private
A controversial report from a cohesion think-tank suggests it is time the white working class was given a hearing. From Roger Hewitt’s justification of the racism of white youths in the 1990s as territorial struggle, to a study of London’s East End a few years ago describing hostility towards Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities
A solicitor at Harrison Bundey in Leeds explains how, had police officers taken a young black man, who had swallowed packets of drugs, straight to hospital, he might still be alive. On 20 February 2012, an inquest jury returned a verdict of misadventure on Reece Staples, who was 19 when he died in police custody
A conference to critique the big society and suggest solutions to challenges facing society. Wednesday 29 February 2012, 11-4pm The Midland Hotel, Forster Square, Bradford BD1 4HU Speakers: Ed Cox – IPPR Rob Berkeley – Runnymede Trust Anna Coote – New Economic Foundation Toby Blume – Urban Forum Related links Download a flyer (pdf file,
Tony Ball, leader of Basildon council, was nominated for two very different awards for his role in the eviction of Travellers from Dale Farm. The eviction of hundreds of the Dale Farm Travellers last October was a mass, state-sanctioned programme of enforced homelessness. More than eighty families were forced from a piece of land which
